This blog contains a series of movie segments to be used to brainstorm, warm up, follow up, and activate schemata, preparing the students for the topic that will be discussed in class. Here you will find the segments, the lesson plans, and varied topics to foster conversation. You may use the activities for a full two-hour class or they can be used separately to brainstorm or wrap up the topic, focusing on conversation, vocabulary and listening comprehension.

Friday, August 29, 2014

We have been having a lot of news about Wikileaks on TV and it is hard to understand what they do, especially if you are not much into this kind of topic. However, it is an interesting and important issue, which can generate a great deal of conversation. It is a very current topic. I recommend it for adults only.

I. Read the text about Wikileaks below. Then retell it to a friend, using your own words.

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit online organisation which publishes secret information and classified media from anonymous sourcesThe group has released a number of significant documents which have become front-page news items. According to the WikiLeaks website, its goal is to bring important news and information to the public.Another of the organisation's goals is to ensure that journalists are not jailed for emailing sensitive or classified documents. The online "drop box" is described by the WikiLeaks website as "an innovative, secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information to WikiLeaks journalists". Because of the sensitive nature of most of the information available on Wikileaks, authenticity is not just assumed. The Wikileaks community carefully vets all submissions, making absolutely sure that the innocent are protected and that the information is both secure and authentic.

Why is Wikileaks so important?Wikileaks aims at being a safe place for airing documentation of corporate or governmental misdeeds. It is a safe haven for anyone, anywhere in the world, to submit sensitive information that can then beread by the public, with the ultimate aims being transparency and justice through public communication.

II. Divide the class into three groups. Group 1 reads THE GOOD, Group 2 reads THE BAD, and Group 3 reads THE UGLY.

THE GOOD: Complete transparency will not work in the industrial world but there is something to say for it in government. When government is dealing with its citizens, complete transparency ought to be the rule. Indeed, too much secrecy goes on in government regarding its dealings with citizens; otherwise, why would we need a Freedom of Information Act and be required to use it all the time in order to squeeze a little information out of the government? Unfortunately, this is not the secrecy that WikiLeaks exposed.

THE BAD: When you are dealing with opponents, it is certainly not in your interest to expose your strategies, your tactics or your private thoughts. Private industry understands this completely and its secrecy works to great advantage all the time. Take Apple as an example. Its product development secrecy makes for huge product launch successes. And if they didn’t do that? Their success would be diminished. In government, the same is true of opponents. Face it, the world is not made up of angels. There are evil people and even just plain people who want to protect their self-interest. To win against evil people or evil governments requires not sharing your strategies or tactics. When WikiLeaks shares all the inner thoughts, strategies and tactics with the world, the US negotiating position is severely weakened. The other parties have their secrets, but we have lost ours.

THE UGLY: If transparency were the rule in, say, State Department interactions, then people would have interacted differently. But State Department people felt that they could rely on secrecy to transmit their private thoughts and suggestions to their superiors and underlings. To have this trust broken is indeed ugly. With new technologies, people have to work around possible exposure. Emails are far from secure yet some people treated them as private conversations, much to their dismay when a court proceedings revealed everything. So people began using phone conversations hoping they were not tapped. Real security might only be found in one-on-one conversations in an open field. But most people using the “secure” system trusted that their conversations were private.

The State Department is one area, but the Defense Department is even more extreme. One cannot win wars without secrecy. The Chinese understood that 1000’s of years ago. And having WikiLeaks expose only one side’s secrets is only a way to assure defeat for that side. Because of the intention to do just that, the efforts of Assange and his organization are indeed treason. He must be prosecuted to the maximum extent and not just on rape charges.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

This is a fascinating animated movie. The story is gripping and their assumptions witty. I hope you like it.

A stereotype is “...a fixed, over
generalized belief about a particular group or class of people.” (Cardwell, 1996). The use of stereotypes is a major way in which we
simplify our social world; since they reduce the amount of thinking we have to do when we meet a new person. By stereotyping
we infer that a person has a whole range of characteristics and
abilities that we assume all members of that group have. Stereotypes
lead to social categorization, which is one of the reasons for prejudice
attitudes. Most stereotypes
probably tend to convey a negative impression. Positive examples would
include judges (the phrase “sober as a judge” would suggest this is a
stereotype with a very respectable set of characteristics), overweight
people (who are often seen as “jolly”) and television newsreaders
(usually seen as highly dependable, respectable and impartial).
Negative stereotypes seem far more common, however.

I. Discuss the questions with a friend.

1. Based on the description above, how would you describe the stereotypes of the following groups of people?

Americans

Brazilians

Muslims

Baianos (for Brazilians only)

Japanese

Doctors

Artists

Models

2. If you were a person from another planet and you had to describe your stereotyped vision of human beings to the people from your planet, how would you describe us?

3. We also have a stereotyped vision of ETs. What is the image/characteristics of ETs?

4. Watch the movie segment and make a description of how humans are seen by the eyes of extra-terrestrials. Then decide which characteristics are true (or partially true) and why they have that point of view about us.

MY OTHER BLOG

Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals

About Me

I'm a teacher at Casa Thomas Jefferson, Brasilia, Brazil. I'm a Branch Coordinator and Teacher Trainer as well. I really like movies and seeing them with "different" eyes, trying to see how I can use them in my classroom. Recently, I have dedicated my ideas to grammar activities with movie segments because, apparently, teachers use movies for many purposes, but grammar. Working with movie segments fosters students' production and interest. I truly believe that grammar exercises should be attractive. I have just developed a new blog for movie segments to enhance topic based classes, focusing on conversation, listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. If you have suggestions for the blogs and the activities, just say it!

Casa Thomas Jefferson

O Inglês Como Deve Ser

Welcome

The main purpose of this blog is to share activities to enhance the teacher's lesson plan. They will not replace the course book, but they will make the lessons more attractive and richer. Share your warm-up activity with movie segments too. You may email it to me at claudioazevedo@thomas.org.br and the activity will be credited to you with a link to your own site if it's the case. Give me suggestions for topics and segments too, please. Isn't sharing just fantastic?